A walk down Memory Lane...

Making last minute visits in White Salmon with Hermana Knight before I left.

So this week has been quite the ride!

I said goodbye to a few people before Wednesday when I got transferred. That was a bit sad, but it was also not as bad as I expected it to be. 

On Wednesday, we got to the transfer site and received all the missionaries coming to our zone, and also we received Hermana Knight's greenie!  Hermana Hull is from Texas as well (coincidence, right?) and had some flight problems, so she didn't show up in the Yakima airport until just past midnight with her MTC companion, and then woke up bright and early before all the other missionaries to get ready to drive down to us. That poor Hermana... Hopefully she slept well!  

Then I jumped into the Assistants' Nissan Truck and drove up to Yakima. It's about a 2 hour drive, and I was the only Hermana getting transferred, let a lone, in either car.. so it was me, Elder Shugart, who was my second district leader during my mission, and another spontaneous elder we love to serve with. We three had a blast talking about the work happening in our areas, and telling stories of investigators. 

We arrived in Yakima and then, during another 4 hours, drove up to Wenatchee and arrived around 3:30. I was so exhausted from driving so much and moving luggage around and helping everyone get situated!  As we arrived in Wenatchee, I received the cute Hermanita Baird! She's adorable and so ready to work! She is from Missouri, and has been out on her mission just since March; she's still fresh in the field. :)  

As we gathered our stuff together, I slowly came to the realization as she and I talked about what would happen that day, that we are in a WALKING AREA!  Woo, I looove walking, yes I do!  We cover the boundaries of 2 wards on the west side of Wenatchee, and we have no car.  Which is definitely tough!  We do partially share a car with a set of sisters, but we only have it twice a week. But hey, a car is still a car even though we barely have it!  So we got situated in someone's car, dropped everything off, went to a Hispanic member's house for dinner, and then went out and worked!  We really can make it work without a car. I can probably say I'm bound to have blisters REAL soon, but I love walking! 

My ol' crib

 We have a small, tiny, little apartment, and our Sister Leaders live in my old house with the Bishop of another ward across the river. That was reminiscent on Sunday as we stopped by after correlation for lunch at their house before returning to go to Sunday school. The ward is pretty small, but during the winter, like most Spanish areas in our mission, it will get more busy since most members are working in the field. Being in a walking area is really fun. It's really easy to talk to people, use time more wisely and plan everything out to almost a "T".  

We have service opportunities pretty often during the week at a local Museum where we help prepare projects for the youth camps and activities they have during the summer. We have a sweet ward of members who remind me so much of my Hispanic families in Yakima; ALWAYS willing to feed us, give us rides, go out with us to lessons, and all that good stuff. 

I was able to see a lot of old faces in the Spanish ward, especially Wendy and her older sisters. We had some good time to catch up during our ward dinner together after Sacrament.  

Can I just say, I LOVE change? 

I was able to really feel the spirit yesterday during sacrament meeting. And I've been thinking hard lately about why Heavenly Father wants me in the Spanish ward again... and I had a warm fuzzy feeling come over me, almost in all the classes that this is where I need to be, and to be companions with Hermana Baird. I feel so at home here... Just like in Yakima in the Spanish Branch, It's literally the best feeling ever to be just working in  Spanish area again. I have really missed speaking this much Spanish, and just being a part of the Hispanic member culture. I truly missed it here, and I love the people we are working with right now!  We are currently teaching a few couples who are holding each other back from certain things, and particularly one named Lucy. Hermana Baird and her trainer met her right before transfers last week, and Lucy has literally lost everything.. her family, money, and nearly everything she owns. Her face lit up as we taught her the restoration, and said she wanted to come to church, and to find friends. I was a little skeptical at first to hear that she wanted friends, but she literally needs them... She has nobody close by; family, friends, relatives of some sort, None! She came to church once we found her a ride, and she LOVED church yesterday. The ward has already embraced her like family. The work is somewhat slow, but we are excited to get to work this week with our current investigators. I wish you all the best for this week!

Espero que tengan buen semana, y hasta luego!

In front of my old house with our Sister Leaders :) The short blonde one is Hermana Baird!

Successful Temple Trip #3

Hi everyone! 

This past week went amazing! As a few of you know, I had my last temple trip of my mission this past week, and it was exactly what I needed at the exact right time. 

At the beginning of the week, we had our District meeting, which went better than usual!  But on our way to district counsel, we got a call from our vehicle coordinator who told us we needed an oil change AND a tire rotation that same exact day, right away.  Apparently we were over the due mileage for when we really needed it. But not too over, luckily!  So we had to stay in Hood River for a few hours while they changed our oil and rotated our tires.  It took about 3 hours when it should have taken only an hour and a half at the most... So unfortunately, we were out of our area, and we had nothing to do.. so we did some studying, and we also called some people's names that have been in our phone for quite some time, and we got some good OYM's from those people!  Later we had a lesson with Trevor, who we have been working with for quite some time, and we finally were able to get in with him again, which led to some discussion about an article in a New Era from last year.  He is still progressing so much.  It's so exciting!  He came to church again and loved it!  He's basically a member... He just can't get baptized yet..  But it's going awesome! 

Wednesday we had some awesome member-present lessons with a few investigators, and we had a great Practice Teach Lesson with a less active.  As the Washington Yakima Mission, we have been doing our best to become better teachers, and one of our goals as a mission is to involve the active and less active members in our areas and teach them a lesson from the missionary discussions, allowing them to feel the spirit, and for spiritual upliftment, and also for them to get a taste of what we are doing, so they'll be more excited to share the gospel with their friends.  We had a SWEET practice lesson that day, and she's excited to hear The Plan of Salvation this upcoming week! T

Thursday was our Temple day. WOW! The spirit hit me like a wall.... I truly miss going to the temple so often. While going every 6 months is nice, and it's a good pick-me-up every few months. I wish we had more opportunities to go to the temple more often, because I'm starting to really realize how much I need it and more often!  We drove to Kennewick with Sister Curtis, a sweet member in our ward. We arrived at the temple around 9:00 before the session started and got ready to be in our seats. But as I had been in the changing room, a very familiar face walked passed me... I knew this face very well at the beginning of my mission.  Hermana Heather James recently returned home for some medical problems from the Nashville TN mission, and seeing her face once again was one of the biggest sighs of relief I've had on my mission... Seeing her, hugging the tears out of each other's eyes, it was one of the best feelings ever!!  WOW!  I still can't believe I was able to see her. Unfortunately I did not see her after the session, but I did get other news from a familiar face I knew from Yakima, that told me a less active family that Hermana Aldrich and I visited is now active, and the missionaries are currently activating their son. As a family they are working towards going to the temple soon to be sealed, and we heard a bit of news of some other people as well. It's so strange to be hearing such things from familiar faces, But it was a great comfort to me this week to know that even though I don't feel adequate, through the hard work in the past that I've been looking down on, has paid off, and I feel such relief. 

As I entered the Celestial room, I was looking for many answers... to many many questions. But I soon came across a scripture that led to all my other questions and my searching. This certain chapter is now a very dear place in my heart and It was one of the most spiritual experiences I've had yet to discover and find. I am truly happy to be a member of this church, to have received so many spiritual and physical blessings of having the restored gospel in my life. I can promise each of you, (my current missionary friends) that as you continue to teach people of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and also in your own work at home (for those of you at home) that the Temple has MANY things in store for us that we cannot comprehend in our own hearts and minds. I truly did not feel a bit of stress on my back as I entered the doors of the temple, And as we left the temple, I still felt the endless peace of God's love for me. 

I love you all, Have a great wonderful week! 

Yakima is melting, not me!

Hi everyone! 

This past week was great!  We had a sweet District Council, and we even had it in Spanish, which was fun because I haven't done that before!  We had some sweet practice in Spanish for our lessons with role plays, too. We talked to a ton people this week too, it was great!

We had a missionary training broadcast, which was worldwide, and that was awesome.  I felt the spirit so strong. It was a lot of what we already talk about as missionaries -- living the doctrine of Christ to grow our testimonies, and then to be able to testify even more.  Our two hours of listening to them was a blast!  Later that day we had a set lesson with Chessy and Francisco, her Dad, but we couldn't find a member to come with us, so we asked them if they could meet us at McDonald's.  Francisco called us back and said they could!  So we were still able to have a lesson, haha!  We just had to have it in public, which is always a little awkward the first time around, but it went great!  

Later that night we had a lesson with Jorge, who is our sweet golden referral.  We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he loved it!  He's reading the Book of Mormon, and really enjoying it!  We hadn't gotten too far with him and the lessons until he called us the day before our last lesson and told us he'd be leaving to move back to San Francisco to start over.  I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but he was married to his partner for about a year, who died last July, and that was around the time he was walking around Pike's Market in Seattle when two sister missionaries kind-of -- sort-of chased him down to talk to him.  He felt a bit weird, but he loved talking with them, so that turned out well!  But he's now officially out in San Fran.  He said he'd request the missionaries to visit him though, he's awesome!  Just looking for a bit of peace in his life!

After having the broadcast, and preparing to have a Zone Conference this week, I've been evaluating myself and my personal goals.  Hermana Aldrich and I have been talking things out, between us and personally our mission goals, and I've come to a conclusion.  I don't always look at the time I have left, but in thinking about how far I've come so far on my mission, this past transfer I have truly changed more than I probably have over all my mission. This past transfer has truly taught me what it takes to be a true disciple of Christ. Patient, long suffering, faithful, knowledgeable, charitable, virtuous, diligent, and especially humble. I am who I am right now on my mission because of the endless experiences I'm having with Hermana Aldrich, and my situations right now. 

One thing that has helped me out this week is the Youth 2016 music.  Wow!  How uplifting!  We've listened to a lot of hymns, I love it.  I am so motivated to become more like Jesus Christ everyday!  I truly now feel like a real missionary!  

I LOVE being a part of the W.Y.M. Couldn't ask for anything else!

The Itsy Bitsy Miracles... and Mishaps!

Hi Ya'll!

This past week just FLEW by! Holy Cow!  We had a chance to visit Berta this past Monday after returning to work after P-day, and she definitely grasped the Plan of Salvation. Well, but about halfway through our lesson she cut us off and said she only has about 15 minutes with us every time we visit. Typically, we keep our appointments with investigators around 45 minutes to answer questions, to teach, and let the Spirit work on them. This really tested our simplicity, as we only made it through the first half of the Plan of Salvation lesson. She said she would continue to read the rest, and asked us to come back in a week. We had a goal to visit her more than once a week, if we want to help her progress, so we worked out our next appointment, today after P-day, and we hope to establish our purpose as missionaries again, and about how we'd like to visit more than once a week.. It should go well!

Tuesday, We visited the Torres Family, a less active family in our area, and they got invited by family to go to Salt Lake City for General Conference!  Sister Torres's work conflicts, as she is expected to work every Saturday, and a very long shift.  So unfortunately, she won't be able to go. She gladly accepted our invitation to join us at the church when General Conference is broadcasted to our other church building in Zillah, about 15 minutes away!  We also had a good lesson with Rose Marie, and talked more about baptism, because she's on date to be baptized for October 24th. Ever since last Tuesday, we haven't been able to get back in touch with her, which is sad, but we will be meeting with her sometime this week!

Wednesday was our Miracle Day!  We started off our day with a sweet District meeting, and our Zone Leaders even joined us!  Later that day we knocked in Toppenish, and then finished our day off with knocking in Granger. We were able to meet some wonderful people. We started off in Granger without an idea of where to start knocking, but we felt inclined to knock a certain street with Hispanic houses and American houses, (Spanish missionary habit, always searching for Hispanic looking streets and homes) and started off with not many people answering the door, until we knocked on another door, who seemed not to be home. We started turning around when a lady next door asked us "Can I Help you!?"  We first expected an outspoken American lady.  We kindly started talking to her after she told us she lived in that house, but was visiting next door. She started sharing some experiences she and her four kids have had to suffer through this past few years. She's divorced, and being forced to evacuate her house after not being able to pay the bills. She broke her collarbone at work and has been unable to work for the past month, sending aside the money she needed to support her kids, because her ex-husband isn't helping to pay for the kids' funds. We started talking about our purpose and work as missionaries, and she started to talk about how the missionaries in the past had stopped by only once, and never came back to her house. We felt sympathy as she started crying to us about how difficult things have been for her lately, and so we started talking about how Heavenly Father loves us and has created each of us for our purpose to return with him again. We started talking about how Sister Taua and I have experienced trials where we didn't feel like He was listening. She continued to cry, but to hide it from her children in the yard behind her. We promised her as she would make the move to Oregon to live with friends that she would find missionaries there who would gladly love to come over and teach her and her children. We gave her our card and invited her to request the missionaries on Mormon.org when she got settled in, and she said she gladly would!

Still loving our members animals!

Then Wednesday night we loaned the car to the Elders, (No, still no car for them, so we continue to loan it to them two or three times during the week) and started exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders. All day Thursday, Hermana Johnson was sick with a head cold/allergies. We still don't know why she's been sick for a long time, it's probably just allergies. We started off by working in Granger again.  We started talking to some people as soon as we got out of the car, but as I was closing up the car, I couldn't find the keys... I looked in my bag, in my skirt pockets, guess where the keys were....... I'm a klutz!  Yes, I locked the keys inside the car. Pretty embarrassing, but funny at the same time.  We just continued to talk to Anna Maria who was very intrigued by our message of eternal families. We got a return appointment and then evaluated what to do about our keys. We managed to find a member who was in Yakima who offered to pick up our spare key at the mission office (in Yakima, 30 minutes away) and bring it to us.  In the meantime without the car, we walked to our appointment with Alberto, who we are still having a hard time understanding. He's distracted very easily and doesn't seem to all be there in his head. He said he used to have extreme drinking problems but is trying to stop, we figured he may be a bit delayed mentally. Unfortunately he wasn't there for his appointment, but we were able to meet our recent convert's son, who just got home from Rehab, and lives next door. Ernesto has been in rough spots since the missionaries tried teaching him. He was in and out of Juvenile, and just got home from Rehab in Seattle, and in the meantime, his family was all baptized.  He really likes the elders.... but unfortunately, we are not the elders... He was pretty reluctant when we first met him, but we made plans to visit him and his family this week!  We also Taught Noheli that same night, who is about to have her fourth child!  We will need to wait a few weeks until she is stable with time and the new baby to come back and teach, but she and her husband love the bible, have beautiful children and lots of potential!  We met a few less actives that same night and exchanged back to our real companions! 

Our next Miracle was on Saturday!  We met Bundy (short for Abundancia)  while knocking some doors, and started talking with her about how much Heavenly Father loves us.  She started to really let loose on her word and talked A LOT, but it just goes to show how lonely she's truly been after explaining to us how she hasn't been getting along with her husband lately.  She's received some blessings from the missionaries, and knows our daily dose teachers very well!  We have a return appointment with her for Tuesday and are taking our Daily Dose teachers with us. 

On Sunday we had the Primary Program combined with the Ward and the Branch, so we started earlier than usual, and unfortunately Rose Marie didn't come, but said she would commit to coming.  We had dinner with the Ibarra's, and visited with some members to have dessert, and then returned to finding former investigators. 

We turned in some lost cards and Food Stamp cards to the Police Office. Mind you, neither Hermana Taua or I have been inside a Cop's Office, so it was awkward but funny all at the same time, meeting the officers and explaining how we found these Insurance, Food Stamp Cards and Health cards on the side of the road, all around a wallet, which was not there when we went back to get it.... The wallet was taken by someone literally in less than 5 minutes.  Pretty sketchy, but we hope the person gets their cards back. 

It's been a great week filled with little perfect miracles.  I know this Gospel is true, and I know it blesses every person in this world. I encourage each of you who aren't currently serving a mission to help the missionaries in your areas and to go about your ward mission plans. 

Love you all! Have a great week!

Granger is known as the Washington Dinosaur land!

Slow and Steady we continue...

This week was a bit rocky, but overall we had a blast! Don't be confused if I talk about walking and knocking a lot, we are finding new investigators this week :)

Monday night after P-day we went and found some less actives whose membership papers were in our area book. We had a feeling we should go find them and meet them. Why not, right? Members that were baptized over 5 years ago and they haven't attended since? Of course we are gonna go find them! We met Eloise and Brian who are mother and son, Eloise's husband was working. We recently got a GPS from a member who donated it to our car so we plugged in the address and went a searching! We found Eloise and talked with her a bit. She and her husband and son, Brian were baptized in Hermiston, Oregon, and then moved to Toppenish for work. She is such a sweet lady who doesn't know how to read, but she listens to the Book of Mormon on tape, (YES! Partially active!)  We were extremely happy to meet them and have a return appointment on Friday. Still haven't met her husband, but we will this Friday :)

Tuesday we did service at the food bank again and got a whole bunch of bananas. They are always trying to give us food, not because they can, but because they have extra that will go bad soon, so they gave us some and then gave some to the Scouts, who were finishing service hours with us at the bank. We had some awesome lessons planned, which all ended up falling through, which was so so sad, but in return we did some solid knocking and contacting  of 'formers', which helps us clean out our area book.  We met Ricardo while knocking, who's a solid guy. Super nice and welcoming.  His family wasn't home at the time and he was headed out to Yakima to work, so we took down his name and address, but then he said he wouldn't be able to meet with us for another month because he's working HOPS.... #goshdarnyouharvestseason.  We definitely assured him we would be back in a month at his request. He looks forward to seeing us and getting his family together when we come back. 

Wednesday we had our District meeting and decided we would focus on inviting members every day to come out with us, because we can't find many members to come out with us for lessons or tracting. I also was able to give a training on diligence and how we are responsible to be diligent to our Heavenly father, our companions, but more importantly ourselves... It's so crucial that we are on time, and obedient because it brings miracles!  Exact obedience brings blessings and miracles!  Then we had some less actives we visited, and then had dinner with the Guzman family. They are both converts with 7 kids, and they are partially active where they live currently.  But we were able to talk a lot about the temple and baptism covenants.  Then we had another lesson with Katrina!  This girl though... She has so many questions and seemed to become more confused while we watched the Restoration video.  Luckily we had Brother Ibarra with us during this lesson and we were able to include his testimony and his solutions to her questions.  She's having a hard time accepting that there's a direct correct authority from Heavenly Father.  We will work on that though. There are some missionaries that have been able to teach the Restoration with only the Bible.  Who of my missionary friends knows how to?  Can someone help us out? Email me! :)  Much Appreciated!  We then started our exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders, who are such gems!  I left Toppenish and served in Yakima for the day with Hermana Cain.  She's from Georgia and she's the first missionary of her family and siblings to go.  She's a diamond!  She taught me so much!  The only little down part of exchanges was that they work in a walking area.... Merp.  They have a car for the first half of the week and then they give their car to the elders, who they share it with.  I can now say I have rock hard shins! I really enjoyed taking a break from driving though... I really do love walking! 

The whole next day was full of rides to appointments and walking. I loved working in Yakima that day!  I guess you could say I got a little break from Spanish, because we taught in English all day.  That was because the Sister Training Leaders, who have been called to speak Spanish, are in an English walking area, which sounds silly, but it's as the Lord wants :)  I was able to meet a lot of wonderful English less actives and try to give English lessons... It was so weird to not be speaking Spanish!  We finished out the day with a lesson with some sweet less actives, who drive truck and who are sick once in a while, but they have great faith!  Then Hermana Taua and Johnson drove to us in Yakima and we exchanged back.  They were able to find some awesome potential investigators for us to return and see this week!

Saturday was a lot of knocking as well. We met someone SO SOLID!  Cezar answered the door very shyly but curiously. We talked a little bit about faith and blessings from having Christ in our lives. We invited him to pray with us before we left and he turned out to be VERY hesitant.  He's catholic, so he's only used to the crucifix hand motion thing.  So we taught him how to pray from the Restoration pamphlet and he said a really short, sweet, powerful prayer.  "Dear God, please help my struggling family, please help me find work, Amen".  We told him he did a great job!  We set up a return appointment for Sunday night.  We also received a call from President Lewis... He asked Hermana Taua to sing in a big conference we are having tomorrow with Elder Packer's son, who is a member of the area of 70.  She accepted, and he invited me to join with her as a duet if she'd like.  We said we'd do it!

Sunday was a little hard to pay attention because there weren't that many people at church, a lot of our members are going back to work for harvesting the Hops. #darnyouhops.  Neither of us felt the Spirit much, we didn't know why.  This continued all day and we started to have contention between us without the Spirit.  Before returning to Cezar, who we met the day before, I had to get out of the car and stretch and just try to relax.  I couldn't relax without the Spirit with us then.  The spirit of contention was so harsh we barely spoke outside of lessons and prayers before lessons.  After saying a prayer to bring the Spirit back, the only bad thing was... when we arrived at Cezar's door there was a note... "Somos catolicos aqui".  We are catholics here!  NOOO.... Darn it. We vaguely saw him as we walked away, but he quickly shut the door when he saw we left him a note with our number.  It was really sad to see this in result of not striving enough to have the Spirit with us.  We were able to talk today about what we can do better to keep the Spirit with us as a companionship, and we start our goals TODAY.  

It was a great week, and I wish luck to my friends going back to school and to working at the schools. Have a great week!

"Fiddler on the Roof" Miracles, Miracles!

Top of the Mornin' to you all!

We've found some awesome new people this week, miracles are happening in East Wenatchee! :)

Just about every day this week we've had 3 set appointments! The first three appointments on Tuesday were ALL invited to be baptized and they all said yes once they confirm their decision with their families!  Marisella and Sabino, Woo hoo!  That same day I gave my very first District Meeting training on Giving Out of Love.  I was truly able to express what I saw in each of my missionaries (The missionaries in my District).  We are all in the zone of remembering our purpose every day and with every person we talk to.  I talked about the "Current Bush" talk by Hugh B. Brown.  It's one of my favorite talks and it helped in my training so much!

On Wednesday we had ANOTHER 3 lessons.  They were ALL invited for baptism!  Conchita again for confirmation that she wanted to be baptized (still no date) and Evonne and Victor.  Evonne has been taught by the missionaries before, but she was in a serious relationship which kept her and him from being baptized.  They also broke up along with all the drama.  He's moved out (which helps with her baptism) and she also expressed how ready she is to be baptized, ready for the lessons! :)  She speaks more English than Spanish so we are planning a hand off lesson for her and we will DEFINITELY be at her baptism :) 

Con Amor, Hermana Marble

Thursday went pretty slow, but we had dinner with the Merrill family, who's son just left for his mission in Brazil, and Brother and Sister Merrill are headed to the Provo MTC in two weeks to become service missionaries in Peru!  They had us over for dinner while their daughters' kids were playing.  Their grandson, LeRoy tried leaving with us to go teach people.  "Mommy, I have to go help the missionaries! I have to help Jesus!"  I just about died, cutest 4 year old ever!  We had a lesson planned with Wendy, which didn't go as planned... She was super distracted and nothing was clicking for her, so we decided we would come back another day.

Friday we planned all day and then went on exchanges with Hermana Capi and Sister Larsen. They are the SWEETEST Sister Training Leaders we've ever both had!  Super fun exchanges helping them with their on dates investigators and contacting their referrals all day. 

Yesterday Wendy didn't come to church, and this time none of her family came.  It was super sad and we were so looking forward to it, but we have plans to go by Tuesday with a member.  We drove up to Orondo for a return appointment, but it fell through, so we stopped by Angelita and Elizabeth.  Remember them from a few weeks ago?  Well, they are going through a divorce right now and they are looking for some divine comfort and help.  We invited them both to be baptized and they both said yes!  They didn't have a specific date set, but we will be putting them on date this week!  Then we had a sweet member dinner with the Olson family, Cutest family ever! They are so much fun!  We grabbed some dessert from them after a fallen through appointment.  Later that night we found our Less Active/Recent Covert Salvador at the church while we were waiting for a member to come with us to a lesson. He told us a wild story about something that was happening in his apartment building and asked for our help...  We didn't end up helping him, but we sent some other help for him.  We were both pretty nervous for him, but we do know he's been having some mental health issues.  If you could, please Keep Salvador in your prayers. 

We are planning on fasting for him this week. There's so much that's happening and we are so excited for these stake changes to happen soon!   

Love you all, have a wonderful week!

High Low, High Low Weather....

Zone Sistas

This week has been hard, but soooo worth it.  We had a combined Zone P-day this past Monday, which was a blast!  Scatter ball and Chair soccer for dayzzz!  We then had our last District meeting of this transfer, with Elder Hacking in our District, who will be heading home next week, and who is one outstanding missionary.  My trainer and companion, Hermana Wortley, and Elder Gleed, one of our zone leaders, may also be leaving.  It was quite a district meeting, our district is so wonderful.  I love them all lots!

We also have been helping our less active Veronica come back to church and get into better habits. We helped her start making tamales this past week, and she's started selling them. We've spread word to our ward to help her out! 

Our biggest blessing this week was yesterday - our mission wide fast for our less actives and investigators.  We had our newest investigator Miguel, attend church, just for sacrament meeting.  He's a former investigator, so it wasn't too new for him, but he loved it.  We also had 3 less actives attend church as well!  What a MIRACLE!   Two stayed for sacrament, one was late to Sunday School, but enjoyed every minute of it, and also brought his two sons, who absolutely LOVE primary!  And I was also able to bear my testimony to our wonderful ward.  We not only see miracles in our investigators, but with our wonderful ward family.  We have such opportunities to help serve and eat meals with our ward.  They have such great strength!

Hermana Wortley was teaching Concepcion, an older Hispanic woman before I came out, and she left for Mexico when she and her past companion were teaching her.  We recently called her to see if she had returned, and she is in CA for this week, but she will be home on Thursday, and we set up an appointment with her!  It was an amazing week and experience to hear that. 

As you can tell from the title, this week has been extremely hot too early.  Yesterday was not only fast Sunday, but it was up to 104... I don't know how I was able to live through that heat AND fasting...  It was a miracle for both Hermana Wortley and I!  We finished off our fast Sunday with a wonderful member dinner and downed about 5 glasses of ice water.  Such a worthwhile week!

Love you all, have a fabulous week!

Our awkward, sweet, amazing district

Una Semana Mas!

Just a cheesy picture on of my District's hermanas took of me earlier after breakfast. thought you guys might like it. 

Hola everyone! 

This week has been much better. We've had many opportunities to be of service to the Kitchen and Cleaning staff. It's very humbling being able to work side by side with the wonderful humble people who do so much for us! 

Recently I asked one of the cooks if they make many meals without milk, and he said it rarely happened... Pero.. (all talking in Spanish and pero means but) he said he would like to make some CREPES for me sometime this week since I leave for Kennewick next Tuesday. I thanked him over and over again and he gladly smiled and laughed with me. 

This is the hail we received last Tuesday night.

So... ya'll know how I was complaining for some moisture, right?  Well... last Tuesday, it hailed here in Mexico City.  It was insane. On Tuesday evenings we have a great devotional with our MTC presidency which is always a burden lifter for me. Not that I carry burdens, but that it completely uplifts me when I need it most, along behind Sundays which I have mentioned that are the BEST day of the week, besides P day, which is also our weekly devotional night. This particular night we had our raincoats on, knowing from the weather that Hermana James in our room predicted. (she wants to be a meteorologist and can predict rain)  She suspected it would rain this night... but no, It HAILED!  It was pretty hilarious.  During our nightly discussion after our Tuesday night devotional, the hail was coming down so hard it knocked the power out right in the middle of our Zone testimony meeting! The power was only out for about less that 2 minutes and then came back on.  It was so interesting to see that in our devotional.  We watched a video about Elder Holland and one of his 'get right in your face so you can feel his breath' missionary talks.  He talked about our need to SPEAK UP among all the contradicting churches and falsehoods told about our church.  I bore my testimony, and immediately when I began to talk, the hail stopped.  I mentioned in my testimony, that just as the hail was beating down on our buildings, those noises can be like those contradicting voices.  We MUST speak up!  That talk really got me throughout the rest of the week.  We are told many times during our classes where we only speak Spanish, to try the phrase first in the language we will be teaching and we will be surprised on how well our brains can work so fast to translate and say what our hearts want to say.  That really impressed me!   It helped me a lot with our lessons this week, which were mainly about the Commandments and the Word of Wisdom. This was quite an opportunity for me to feel the spirit work through my words and my mouth. 

Watch out, Washington! (caption by Linda)

This week we also had many friends leave for their missions to Chicago, Redlands, CA, and Provo, Utah.  It gave me a great opportunity to be with them for these past 5 weeks, and have them help us around campus. They have been here a week longer than our district, and basically were our family.  I seriously have made some life long friends here at the CCM.  Its been quite amazing!  I look forward to seeing many of these friends after our missions, especially the sisters I've become close with.  I have one more chance to email next week on Monday evening before I fly to Kennewick Tuesday early morning. 

I am excited and also nervous to see how this week goes, but I have great faith that i will strengthen me thoroughly as I push full force in to my last week of lessons with investigators and language classes. 

I love you all!  Be safe, enjoy the sun my Utah friends! 

Hip Hermanas!  (caption by Linda)

I've been in Heaven for a MONTH!

Hey everyone, 

Hope all is going well! So this past week has been quite a ride.  I've been sick this week, but I'm getting better! Haven't had to miss any class, so that's a plus!  It's been a month tomorrow since I arrived and It's wonderful here!  Everyone is so awesome, and we've made lots of friends!  

So last Monday we did service again by cleaning the Water Jug, filling, things... Still don't know what to call them!  We have started teaching two people during the week which got stressful, but now we are back down to one investigator for each companionship this week. 

Tuesday, as I said last week, we went to the Mexico City Temple and visitor center.  I forgot to take pictures of my book covers, but I'll send those next week!  We also played volleyball, and did a LOT of laundry. On Sunday I had spilled gravy all over myself.... it was quite an adventure! 

Wednesday was the day that it was only the Hermanas in class all day. Our District Leader, Elder Johnson, of our trio companionship of elders, got sick with the 24 hour flu.  He's doing much better!  I also got a bit more sick, but I started taking medicine which helped a bit. 

Thursday, I went to the Infermeria for my stomach problems and was given medication, that's helping too. 

Friday and Saturday I was still pretty sick to my stomach, so I asked my morning Hermano teacher to give me a blessing, and my Hermana teacher to translate as much as she could.  Hermano V can't speak much English, but he spoke the blessing in Spanish for me.  Then Hermana A. translated it all for me on paper for me to keep, I'm so happy I did!  I've been looking back at it when I need a boost of energy. 

Sunday was Fast and Testimony Meeting, which we started fasting Saturday night from dinner, then Sunday morning breakfast.  We have Sacrament Meeting right before lunch, so it worked out perfectly!  Sundays here are the BEST!  They are so spiritual and wonderful.  We were able to watch The Testaments video Sunday night and oh man, was it amazing!  It's probably one of my favorite church videos of all time. We later had a District overview, and talked about the video together.  I encourage you all to watch it sometime soon if possible!  

Miss you all lots, thanks for emailing me every week!  I really enjoy reading what everyone has been up to! Thank you for praying for me, I feel the comfort of all your prayers. 

Perseverar hasta el fin!

Hermana Marble

From the first week in 18 months

Hi Everyone! 

I hope you are all doing well! I've made it through my first week of being at the Mexico CCM, and I can say that I absolutely love it here. Forgive me if you see I'm bad at my punctuation, but these Spanish keyboards are hard to get used to, haha! We do a lot of studying, and when I mean studying, I mean HARDCORE studying. We study in between each meal for about 2 to 3 hours. So if anyone wants to know what I do all day, I study like a madwoman! 

So sitting at my terminal at the airport there were 6 of us sisters, and then one elder who jumped on the plane late because his previous plane was running late. We arrived in Mexico City, met up with 4 more sisters, and then waited for our Usher to show up, who was late and apparently running like a mad man around the airport looking for us... but we were right outside of customs. Haha, pretty funny. Lots of sisters, one elder, how do we NOT look like LDS missionaries? Anyway, after getting to the CCM we had a quick orientation, and then we ate dinner and emailed our families to let them know we got here safely. 


Campus is GORGEOUS! It used to be an old high school, but it's just perfect to be the CCM. It's beautiful just about everyday, and you see lots of bright green canaries in the palm trees on campus. Sorry, no picture of the canaries yet. 

Sunday was wonderful, we have district meeting, lots of goal making on our first Sunday, but then we have RS and Priesthood around 10:00 am, then we have sacrament with just our Zone, and our District Branch Presidency. We each have to write a talk by Sunday, ALL of us. Then Sunday morning as the meeting starts, they pick off their random list of who they want to hear from, no more than 5 minutes so we can hear from 7 people from different districts. Our District Leader, Elder Johnson, said the opening prayer and didn't think he would be called o to speak... karma on him, he was the first to speak in our sacrament meeting. He's 6'6 and He LOVES basketball. 

We just finished playing volleyball and on a small playground! Love them. 

In our district, there are only 7 of us.  We are pretty small compared to other districts. I love these missionaries, they are amazing! Our Elders are Elder Johnson, Elder Andruski from San Diego, and Elder Chia from Texas, but all three of them are a tri companionship. We have 4 of us Hermanas, Hermana Harston and I, we are a companionship, and then Hermana Hooker and Hermana James. Those two sisters are from Utah, and my companion Hermana Harston is from Texas. She's amazing, we are so similar it's not even funny... but it actually is. We may not look similar, but we truly could be twins. No kidding! It's been quite an adventure being here, it was pretty easy to adjust to being on campus everyday and going everywhere with my companion. Hermana Harston and I basically can't live without each other... no joke. She loves going to the Gym, and I actually have been wanting to go, so we get up at 5:30 every morning and go work out for 45 minutes to an hour and then come back and get ready for the day. It's nice getting up early, it honestly doesn't bother me since I got used to going to work at ??? around 5 - 6am each morning. I'm really enjoying it here besides all the busy, busy studying sessions we have with our companions, our district in the evening, and personal study in the morning and before bed. All four of us Hermanas room together and we have a blast. 

Feliz de Dia San Valentin from the Mexico CCM!

On Valentines Day, I opened my card from Mom and Dad, and out poured all the Valentines that some of you wrote me at my farewell! Thank you! I love you all! And Thank you Mom and Dad for the Washington Necklace, I Love it! I honestly can't take it off, It doesn't occur to me to take it off... ever. I love it, Thank you both!  

We had 8 Districts leave today and yesterday for their missions from the CCM, so the CCM is pretty empty and more quiet, but it's okay. We have more missionaries coming today and tomorrow. For those of you who don't know much about the CCM, They have different report dates for the locals who live here in Mexico City, and the Pueblo areas. They report on Tuesdays, and the incoming Americans come on Wednesdays, all day because of our different flight times, but you get the gist. It's amazing being here! I say this over and over again, but I truly enjoy it! Love you all, I love hearing from you guys!

Con amor,
Hermana Marble

Washington state with heart necklace